The thought of giving up sugar can be very intimidating. When I tell you that I was addicted to sugar, I was more than addicted. It was no different that someone being addicted to drugs. I had to have sugar and I had to have it every single day. My mood changes had a lot to do with whether or not I had sugar that day or not. I was, by every definition, addicted to sugar and an emotional eater. That is a dangerous combination. Thats why my Keto diet success story means so much to me. It’s also why I want to share my tips and tricks with you. You can succeed with the Keto diet!

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How Addicted to Sugar was I?

When I tell you I was addicted, I’m not joking around. I would drink 32 oz. Slurpees every single day. Do you know how much sugar is in a 32 oz. Slurpee? Over 115 grams of sugar! Insane! As if that wasn’t bad enough, I also ate a candy bar every single time I set foot in a store or gas station. I justified all that by saying, “well I don’t keep junk food in the house”. Which was true. I didn’t keep it in the house, for the most part. I was just buying it daily and bringing it home with me. Totally not the same thing, yet it is!

Emotional eating was something I was really good at. Something would make me upset and I would instantly turn to food. The sugarier and carb-ier (not a word, but I’m making it one!), the better. My brain had been trained to associate carbs and sugar with feelings of happiness. As a result, my weight went up and up, but my mood was never really improved. It was a vicious cycle that I was stuck in.

At my heaviest, I weighed 250 lbs. I don’t know if I ever said that out loud before, but it’s true. Clothes shopping was something I did not enjoy. Nothing ever fit right, or it had no shape that just made me look even bigger. When I heard about the Keto diet, I was afraid to try it. Eat fat? That went against every thing I’ve ever heard about dieting. I actually held off trying it for about six months. But, in January of 2016, I reached my breaking point.

I told myself that I would give the diet a try. I weighed myself every single day for about three months because I was so afraid of this diet not working for me, that I figured if I weighed myself every day, then I would know if I started to gain and I could stop. Guess what happened?!? Weight started melting off me. My body started changing drastically. Now, over a year later, I am down 82 lbs. and very close to my goal weight!

Keto Diet Success Tips and Tricks

First things first, you NEED to use My Fitness Pal. If you are following the Keto diet, you need to track your fat, protein and carb macros. If you don’t, you will NOT succeed. I don’t care what anyone tells you…you won’t. Keto is a delicate balance between those three macros. Look for me on My Fitness Pal and send me a friend request. My name is ImLeah525. Also, figure out your macros using this Keto macro calculator.

Secondly, you need to be all in. I know some diets have cheat days. There are no cheat days with this diet. This diet is a true lifestyle change. If you choose to cheat, you need to understand that you will gain. Why? For starters, once you remove all the sugar from your diet, your body stops craving the sugar and other foods. Which is great! However, when you have a cheat day, your brain says “HEY! I remember this” and then all those cravings come back and you will consume more of that sugary treat than you meant to and sometimes for more than just that day. You are essentially starting the Keto diet over after that.

Third, don’t try to find a bunch of substitutes for those sugary foods you are giving up. If you spend all your time trying to find out how you can still have the cake you are giving up, you are going to end up struggling. In my experience, a lot of my Keto diet success is in getting my mind in the right place first. You can’t do that if you are making Keto bread every day or little Keto approved desserts all the time. Once in awhile is OK, but on a daily basis…no.

Fat Bombs? What’s That?

With all that said, you do want to make fat bombs. One of the hardest things, in my opinion, is getting enough fat in. This book, Sweet and Savory Fat Bombs, is definitely something you should pick up. It is full of all different types of fat bombs to help you find your Keto diet success! I make a chocolate sunbutter fat bomb that is absolutely delicious.

As always, I am an open book. If you have any questions about my experience with the Keto diet, just ask! I am happy to help. If I don’t have the exact answer, I will do my very best to find the answer for you or point you in the direction that you need to go to find that answer. Below you will find some essential items that I recommend you get to help you get started on your very own Keto diet success story! The two pack silicone molds are a really good price right now on Amazon!

So it’s Valentine’s Day. The day of celebrating love, chocolate and other sugary sweets, and flowers. Are you freaking out right now that you are following the Keto diet and that means no sugary treats? Because you know, with the Keto diet, there is no cheat days. Once you show your body it doesn’t need sugar, eating it, even just once, can trigger your brain to start craving all the sugary treats again. However, don’t fret…I gotcha! I’ve put together a great list of the perfect Valentine’s Day Keto foods you will enjoy and stay on plan!

Just because you are following a no sugar diet, doesn’t mean you can’t have a spectacular Valentine’s Day meal! There are so many Keto meals that are on plan that are absolutely delicious and satisfying. You won’t even think about the things you think you are missing! I promise you that!

Valentine’s Day Keto Desserts

As you can see, you can make a FANTASTIC Valentine’s Day dinner and stay completely on plan with your Keto diet! There is no need to think you are being deprived of something. Tonight I will be eating out with the kids (food is already planned out) and for dessert, when I get home, I will be having the Peanut Butter Mousse! Hubby is out of town for work so no fancy meal, but I’m OK with that!

So…what are you going to be eating for Valentine’s Day? Did this Valentine’s Day Keto diet plan help you make any decisions?

A little over a year ago (January 23, 2016, to be exact), both my husband and I decided to start a new diet plan that I had heard quite a bit about…the Keto diet. If you aren’t familiar with this diet, the Keto diet, in very simple terms, is a diet where you stop using carbohydrates as your energy source and start using fat. In other words, your body uses your stored fat as a means of energy. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well it’s not! After a year following this diet, I figured I owed you a Keto diet update!

Keto Diet Update

Let’s take a moment to see where I started a year ago:

A year ago I was over 100 lbs overweight. My cholesterol was high. The triglycerides were 300. I was heading down a very bad path. If I didn’t do something and do it quick…well, I don’t want to even think about what would happen. I told my husband about the Keto diet. Both of us were skeptical, but decided to give it a chance. Here’s where my husband started:

He, like me, was extremely overweight and in need of doing something for his health too. He had sleep apnea, high cholesterol and who knows what else going on because of his weight.

So Where Are We Now?

I’d love to say it was easy. In some ways, it was a bit easy, but it took a bit to get to that point. I was a sugar and carb addict. I ate nothing but carbs and sugar. All day, every day. Not even joking. My husband didn’t eat any better. So, as you can imagine, for about two weeks after starting the Keto diet, we went through some major sugar withdrawal. Once those two weeks were over, we were OK. We quickly found amazing recipes that totally took the place of all the sugary things we used to eat. Some of our favorites are:

OK…OK…you want to know where we are now. Well…I am currently down 82 lbs! I’m working out more and building more muscle, so at the moment, I am not losing pounds, but I am still losing inches all over. I just bought a size 10 for a pair of jeans! My husband has lost over 125 lbs! The thing to know about his diet plan is that he works in another state during the week so he eats out 90% of his meals and still lost 125 lbs. This is not just a diet. The Keto diet is a lifestyle. You either commit or don’t do the diet. Here is what we looked like in October of 2016 (since this picture, we both lost another 10 lbs or so):

So that’s our Keto Diet update. If you are interested in starting the diet, please don’t hesitate to reach out. A good starting point would be to read the books Why We Get Fat and Grain Brain. Both books are extremely informational about they WHY. Why we need to say goodbye to carbs and sugar. Until you know the why, you probably won’t succeed with this diet or stick with it long term.

About a month before my 35th birthday, something happened. I was sitting here writing, like I do most days, and it hit me. I was turning 35 soon. Not too many years later, I will be hitting 40. While getting older has never ever bothered me (the white hairs I randomly get on my head and in my eyebrows–what’s up with that–are definitely something I could do without), the idea of getting older and not making the necessary changes I need to make to lose all this excess weight, is something that has bothered me. Lifestyle changes were definitely needed in my life.

Here I am, five years ago, at my heaviest weight I’ve ever been…250 lbs. I hate even typing that number, but it’s true. I started my weight loss journey at 250 lbs. I knew I had to make some changes and make them quick. Not only was a severely overweight, but I had tested Type 2 Diabetic. I made some changes, lost some weight, and managed to no longer test in the diabetic range. However, my weight started creeping back up and I knew it was only a matter of time before I became Diabetic again. I was not about to let that happen.

Serious Lifestyle Changes Needed!

Fast forward to just about my 35th birthday…a friend of mine had been talking a lot about the Keto diet. I saw her transformation, but was really scared to take the plunge. You see, with the Keto diet, you eat high fat, moderate protein and very low carb. While I know that a very low carb diet works well for me, I was terrified to eat fat! I mean, it’s drilled into our heads over and over again, “low-fat, low-fat, low-fat”. However, I decided to jump in and give it a try. What I didn’t understand at the beginning was that with the Keto diet, you are essentially training your body to use fat as an energy source, instead of carbs. This is huge to understand. You see, since you are not constantly eating fat all day long, your body needs to have energy somehow, so it begins burning your fat stores. It truly is as great as it sounds!

I’ve been doing this diet since January 23rd of this year and I am currently 0.4 lbs away from losing 70 lbs. I look and feel amazing! A little bit of that weight loss is from before starting Keto. See the transformation for yourself…

Yes…I did just use a Snapchat selfie…no judging! It was just my most recent picture of myself and, well, what can I say…I just love the gold butterflies in my hair! Despite the fact that it is a Snapchat selfie, you can see how my face has transformed. I still have some weight to lose, but I’ll get there!

While making lifestyle changes has been the key to my success, there are a few areas of my body that, no matter how much I lose, they don’t change. Those areas would be my saddlebags. I absolutely hate that word, but it’s true. I have them and I hate them. I made a comment to my husband that the only way I would be able to get rid of them is with liposuction. As I was looking around online, I came across an ad for Light Rx Face & Body for Laser Liposuction. I was instantly intrigued! One of the biggest things I noticed was that it required absolutely zero recovery time! That was huge for me. With a husband that travels for work, having something that required recovery time was kind of out of the question.

About Laser Liposuction

This painless procedure utilizes low level lasers that target the fat in a particular area and breaks down the stored triglycerides in the fat cells into free fatty acids and glycerol. The fat content is then transported to various tissues, ready to be burned off during post-treatment exercise. Basically, the laser liposuction is a process that mimics the body’s natural process of releasing stored fat to be used as energy.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?!? I totally thought so! Currently I am partnering with LightRx Face & Body and I am in the process of completing ten complimentary Laser Liposuction treatments and eight Venus Legacy treatments. The Venus Legacy treatments help to get the fat content moving out of my lymphatic system faster, as well as, it helps to tighten the skin area being treated!

I am extremely excited about this phase in my life. Not only are my lifestyle changes working for me, but, with the help of LightRx Face & Body, I am able to work on those stubborn areas of my body, as well! I am only just starting my treatments with LightRx Face & Body, but I will be sure to update in a couple months about my treatments and how they went!

On January 23, 2016, I decided that I was done being fat. I had gotten comfortable. I knew my husband loved me for me and didn’t care one bit about my size. While that is a great feeling to have and not have to worry about what the one person I care what they think, thinks about me, it led me to just give up and not care about my own health and well being. Maybe not intentionally, but that’s what happened. A friend of mine (shout-out to Summer at The Dirty Floor Diaries) had been talking about the Keto Diet Plan for quite some time…I finally decided to give it a try. Rather than do it by myself, I talked my husband into giving the diet a try with me. Strength in numbers and all. What has happened over the last 4+ months has been amazing.

After having my kids, and over the next several years, I hit my highest weight ever. I also was diagnosed Type 2 Diabetic. It was a real game changer when my doctor told me I as diabetic. Shit was getting real, as they say. I had just turned 30 years old. I wish I could say that I handled the news well those first few weeks, but I didn’t. I cried. I cried about the thought of having to give up all the food I liked. I cried because I thought something was going to happen to my feet (Google told me so). I cried because I didn’t want to put in the work that I needed to with this new diagnosis. And then I woke up. I went to a nutritionist. I learned how to eat so that my sugar would stop spiking and my body would start producing and using the correct amount of insulin. In like 9 or 10 months, I lost 50 lbs. I felt amazing! The best part is, after losing that weight and eating like the nutritionist told me, I haven’t tested Type 2 Diabetic since. I had completely reversed things on my own. But then the weight started creeping back up. I started to eat poorly again. While I was still able to stay out of the diabetic range on all my blood tests, I was not eating healthy at all. For the most part, I was a carbaholic. I ate all the things I knew I shouldn’t eat. And then I became fat again. I stayed that way for years.

Shortly after this last Christmas, I saw a picture of myself. I was mortified. I thought I looked good…but I didn’t. I was one of those, “well…at least she has a pretty face”. You know, the phrase every fat girl hates to hear. I started messaging Summer on Facebook and asking more questions about the Keto Diet Plan and finally on January 23, 2016, I was ready to jump in and give it a try.

This is a picture of me at my heaviest weight. To be honest, looking at it is really difficult.

What is the Keto Diet Plan?

Basically, it’s a diet where you eat high fat, moderate protein, and very low-carb. Your body stops using carbs to fuel it and switches to fat. In doing this, you start burning your fat stores. The weight starts melting off! I use My Fitness Pal to track everything. I pay for the premium service because I want my macros to be exact. A few sites I recommend checking out for more information and to figure out what your macros are…

As of today, I am down just over 57 lbs!! I look and feel amazing. I am down four pant sizes and five shirt sizes! Shopping is fun again! It’s so nice to be able to try anything and everything on at pretty much ANY store! The other day I was shopping for dresses for a wedding I have in July. You can see the progress I’ve made…

Don’t mind the crazy tan lines! We had my daughters soccer tournament all weekend long! Never in a million years would I ever try a dress on like this OR even consider getting it. I felt comfortable in the dress and I think I look pretty good!

Is the Keto Diet Plan Right for You?

My advice…do your research. Know what you are getting yourself into. I will tell you, it’s not as hard as it seems. Give yourself a couple weeks to get used to it. When you get into Dietary Ketosis (do NOT confuse this with Ketoacidosis…they are not the same thing), you will go through something referred to as the “Keto Flu”. Power through. Once in Ketosis…stay in it. You can check whether you are in Ketosis by using these Ketone Test Strips I picked up on Amazon.

If you have any questions about the Keto Diet Plan, please don’t hesitate to ask! I will gladly help you!

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